Update: My Cancer Adventure Continues

As I have publicly announced last month ("Yes I have cancer. You thought I was a Scorpio."), I was diagnosed with stomach cancer at the end of March, and I started chemotherapy about two weeks ago. The treatment is aggressive to keep the cancer from spreading.

I have discussed my traveling schedule with my oncologists and surgeon. In the beginning, they advised me to "keep to my usual routine." I don't think they fully comprehended that my usual routine was to take week-long driving trips, sleeping in the back of a van, hauling book boxes around, getting up at 7AM for a Masonic breakfast with lunatic early risers, while being kept out until 2AM by far more rational night owls. While they are understanding of my situation, doctors seem bizarrely more concerned with keeping me alive than they are about me swanning about the countryside. And I misunderstood the regimen schedule when this saga began- it's considerably longer than i thought. So, I have now been advised to cancel my traveling events in May and June.

Skipping over the ickier details, the plan is to kill as much of the tumor with chemo as is possible for an initial nine weeks, hack out the part of my stomach that is affected, replumb the whole mess, and follow up with another nine weeks of chemicals. That puts the surgery at approximately the end of May or beginning of June. In the meantime, I'm wearing a portable chemo pump around my neck, that's about the size of a 1970s cassette deck.

I'm not used to having my wings clipped, and this was supposed to be a very busy spring and summer. But I'm told I need to shut my squeakhole about the inconvenience, and be a little more upbeat about the "not dying" side of things.

This does NOT mean I am getting worse—quite the opposite. Everyone has been quite positive and optimistic, and most important, no one has taken Alice out in the hall and suggested a long, final Caribbean cruise, and maybe a nice party where everybody brings a funny story about Chris. But I am being sternly warned about fatigue, weight loss and other side effects, and just the simple technical challenges of traveling, versus trying to keep to the chemo treatment regimen.

The funniest part of this mess is that, after losing 90 pounds over the last year, I'm being told to eat 3,000 calories a day in anticipation of the eventual appetite loss. Criminey. I didn't eat 3,000 calories a day when I was at my most alarmingly spherical circumference.

I apologize for waiting to make these scheduling decisions until now, which puts many brethren in a bind for their events, but my health issues and answers have been changing on a daily basis, with lots of unknowns. I hope you understand. I will be happy to help any of you find a substitute, unless you want to try to reschedule in the Fall. I'll do whatever I can to attempt to assist from my end.

I remain the luckiest guy in Freemasonry, and Alice and I both appreciate the literally hundreds of emails, letters, cards, phone calls, and stuffed stomach toys that have been coming in. In spite of my grousing, early detection of this condition, along with the friendship of all of you, have been the greatest gifts for which I am truly thankful.

I guess I wasn't aware that there was a market for stuffed replicas of body parts. I can deal with the the stuffed stomach and am thankful you don't have rectal cancer. Who wants to see a picture of a stuffed a ... Uh, never mind.

Praying for you. Doesn't surprise me that you're getting better, though, as so many brothers rely on you for Masonic information, they might dig you up and kill you again if you did die!

So really, you don't have any choice but to get better. :)

Hope things go well for you through the chemo though. I have one uncle who just finished chemo for esophageal cancer (strange, as he was never a tobacco user), and one who is currently undergoing chemo, I believe for stomach cancer as well. They're both doing fine now, but it is a long, arduous process.

Stay confident and positive, and know there are hundreds of people out there thinking about you and wishing you the best.

I mean, I still haven't had the pleasure of meeting you. One more reason you can't up and die. ;)

My cancer is in my stomach, right at the base of the esophagus. The two parts have different cell structures, so you either get stomach or esophageal cancer—they don't usually cross over. Smoking doesn't have anything to do with esophageal cancer. The biggest cause seems to be acid reflux that makes both organs susceptible to attack by cancer. Didn't cause mine, but if you have recurring acid reflux and you love really spicy food, get it checked, pronto.

That said, no one knows what caused mine. For all I know it was the 10-12 Diet Dr. Peppers I drank every day for 15 years.

Adding you to my prayers Brother Chris! I haven't been to your Blog in a month or more, and was sending your link to a potential new brother...and read this. Stay positive and know that there are thousands of brothers out there wishing you a healthy recovery! Thank you for all you do for the fraternity.

I continue to keep you in my prayers. I survived something very like this myself and feel certain you will also join the "Kicked the Big C's Arse Club." It;s a great group, and best of all -- no memory work!

I went through my own bout with cancer (though not stomach cancer) about 15 years ago. It was rough but I lived and am stronger for it. Since then I'm astonished at how far they've come both with chemotherapy drugs and anti-nausea medication. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts, but I suspect you'll pull through just fine.

P.S. A friend was recently diagnosed with diabetes and received a stuffed pancreas from another friend. Apparently there's quite a lively trade in plushy organs. (Don't know if there's a black market, or if anyone has fallen asleep and woken up with their teddy bear's kidneys missing.)

Brother Hodapp, Having been through Prostate Cancer and currently fighting Bladder Cancer, I can understand the inconvenience you are feeling. I feel the same way until I realize that not that many years ago, we would both be planning that Caribbean vacation with our wives. I'll take the inconvenience, thanks. The alternative involves wearing that lambskin apron for the last time. You are in my prayers. Know that you have contributed more to modern Masonry with your writings than you could know. I hope we will one day meet on the level.

ATTENTION!PLEASE sign or otherwise identify yourself in your comment posts. I have been FLOODED for months with spam comments, and I've been forced to laboriously screen every post now. Anonymous postings on Masonic topics have the same status as cowans and eavesdroppers as far as I am concerned, and may be deleted if I don't recognize you or if I'm in a grumpy mood.

A mythic past. A visionary future. A legendary brotherhood.

Freemasonry is the largest, oldest and best-known gentleman's fraternity in the world. Historically, it is based on the Medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Mythologically it is founded upon the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, as told in the Old Testament of the Bible. Modern Freemasons likewise use the tools, traditions and terminology of those earlier stonemasons as allegories for building Temples in the hearts of men.

It's said that we are a secret society. We do indeed have secrets—secrets that each individual man has to discover for and about himself.

At its core, Freemasonry is simply an attempt to make the world a better place, one man at a time. For each man, it can become as simple or as complicated as he himself desires.

It's not for everybody.

Maybe it's for you.

"Brother Chris Hodapp's [blog]...is thought provoking and is often the first place on the web where new ideas and matters of interest are posted."

In 2018 Chris was awarded the Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor by the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana for his "distinguished service to Freemasonry in Indiana and worldwide."

Chris Hodapp received his higher education at Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Valley College, California State University at Northridge, and Indiana/Purdue University at Indianapolis.

He spent twenty-three years in advertising as a commercial filmmaker for Dean Crow Productions, shooting and editing close to 1,000 regional and national commercials, music videos and feature films. He has written scripts for corporate and non-profit clients, and his voice has appeared in countless television and radio commercials.

He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith"by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focussing on modern lodge solutions. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and numerous other publications.

Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon developed episode outlines for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have both appeared on National Public Radio, the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and the American Heroes Channel - most recently in 2017 on America: Facts vs Fiction.

Chris and Alice live in Indianapolis with their very French poodle Wiley who has them both answering to basic commands.

M.A.T.S.O.L.

If you are a Freemason who travels anywhere, you need to download the Amity app to your smartphone. Immediately.

Instantly identify lodges in all mainstream and Prince Hall U.S. jurisdictions, Canada, and more than 50 other countries. Determine a lodge's Masonic regularity immediately, and whether your own grand lodge is in amity with theirs, all on your phone.Apart from my own books, I don't advertise products here as a rule, but this service is absolutely free of charge, created by and for Freemasons, and with the cooperation of grand lodges all around the world.

I am a Freemason and a member of both the regular, recognized Grand Lodge of Indiana F&AM and the United Grand Lodge of England. However, unless otherwise attributed, the opinions expressed in this blog are my own, or of others expressing theirs by posting comments. I do not in any way represent the official positions of my lodges or Grand Lodges, any associated organization of which I may or may not be a member, or the fraternity of Freemasonry as a whole.

Be aware that no one person may speak on behalf of Freemasonry or present their opinion as being the "official" position of the fraternity, unless it is a grand master, and then, only within his own jurisdiction. While Freemasonry is a global fraternal organization, there is no single, authoritative, administrative Masonic body or figurehead anywhere in the world.

The unauthorized appearance of content from this site, in whole or in part, in links, aggregators, forums, comments or other websites does not express or imply an endorsement by the author.

If you are a Freemason and are lifting material from this website without attribution, shame on you.

PRIVACY INFORMATION

The author of this site does not in any way collect any data whatsoever from readers or posters, does not share any reader information with other sites or advertisers, and does not make use of any data collected by any embedded resources. However, this site is hosted by Google's Blogger platform, and is subject to Google's terms of service, as well as their data collection policy.

Pancakes Served Since May 2010 (plus 2,291,385 more between 2006 and 2010)